Chapter 1 - Introduction to Criminal Behavior

index crimes

Part I crimes; serious crimes

nonindex crimes

Part II crimes; nonserious crimes

Hate Crime Statistics Act

a 1990 federal statute that directs the FBI to collect data on all crimes motivated by hatred of or bias against victims based on their racial, ethnic, religious, or sexual orientation physical or mental disability bias was added in 1997

just-world hypothesis

a belief that one gets what one deserves in this world

arrest

a benefit of the NCVS is that there doesn't have to be an _____ for a crime to be reported

status offenses

a class of illegal behavior that only persons with certain characteristics or status can commit used almost exclusively to refer to the behavior of juveniles (running away from home, violating curfew, buying alcohol, or skipping school)

murder

a crime not included in the NCVS

strict liability

a crime that requires no intent; speeding, statutory rape, serving alcohol to minors

National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)

a government-sponsored survey of victims of crime, intended to collect data from the victim's perspective on crimes both reported and not reported to the police

strain theory

a prominent sociological explanation for crime based on Robert Merton's theory that crime and delinquency occur when there is a perceived discrepancy between the materialistic values and goals cherished and held in high esteem by a society and the availability of the legitimate means for reaching these goals

theory

a set of testable, logically interconnected propositions used to explain some phenomena

social control theory

a theory proposed by Travis Hirschi that contends that crime and delinquency occur when an individual's ties to the conventional order or normative standards are weak or largely nonexistent

actus reus

act

deviance

behavior that violates social norms

antisocial behavior

clinical term reserved for serious habitual behavior, especially that involving direct harm to others

intimate partner violence

crimes committed against persons by their current or former spouses, boyfriends, or girlfriends

developmental approach

examines the changes and influences across a person's lifetime tat may contribute to the formation of antisocial and criminal behavior, sometimes called "risk factors"

differential association theory

formulated by Edwin Sutherland, a theory of crime that states that criminal behavior is primarily due to obtaining values or messages from others, including but not limited to those who engage in crime the critical factors include with whom a person associates, how early, for how long, how frequently, and how personally meaningful the associations are

dispositions

in personality theory, a term that signifies internal or personality determinants of human behavior these theorists look to inner conflicts, beliefs, drives, personal needs, traits, or attitudes to explain behavior

hierarchy rule

in the UCR program, the rule that requires that only the most serious crime in a series be reported in the crime statistics

mens rea

intent

crime

intentional act in violation of criminal law committed without defense or excuse

victimless crimes

now known as public order crimes; not included in the NCVS

traits

relatively stable and enduring tendencies to behave in a particular way across time and place; believed by some psychologists to be the basic building blocks of personality

self-report surveys

reports of criminal offending; typically written surveys; conducted in schools minimal concern over underreporting reports of criminal behavior not reported to police, even when names are taken

mala prohibitum

something is wrong/bad because it's prohibited

mala in se

something is wrong/bad because it's wrong/bad

National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)

the FBI's system of collecting DETAILED data from law enforcement agencies on known crimes and arrests

Uniform Crime Reports (UCR)

the FBI's system of gathering data from the law enforcement agencies on the crimes that come to their attention and on arrests

sociological criminology

the branch of criminology that examines the demographic, group, and societal variables to crime

psychological criminology

the branch of criminology that examines the individual behavior and especially the mental processes involved in criminal behavior

psychiatric criminology

the branch of criminology that focuses on individual aspects of behavior, particularly internal forces and unconscious drives

cognitions

the internal processes that enable humans to imagine, to gain knowledge, to reason, and to evaluate; the attitudes, beliefs, values, and thoughts that a person holds about the social environment, interrelations, human nature, and him- or herself

46

the number of crimes in group A in NIBRS

11

the number of crimes in group B in NIBRS

dark figure

the number of crimes that go unreported in official crime data reports

difference-in-kind

the perspective of human nature that argues that humans are distinctly different from other animals

difference-in-degrees

the perspective of human nature that argues that humans are intimately tied to their animal ancestry in important and significant ways and differ only in the extent to which they have developed through the evolutionary process for example, this perspective might argue that human violence is a result of innate, biological needs to obtain sufficient food supplies, territory, or mates

criminal profiling

the process of identifying personality traits, behavioral tendencies, geographic location, and demographic variables of an offender based on characteristics of the crime

theory verification

the process of theory testing

clearance rate

the proportion of reported crimes that have been "solved" through the arrest and turning over for prosecution of at least one person

criminology

the study of crime

nonconformist perspective

the theoretical perspective that humans will naturally try to get away with anything they can, including illegal conduct, unless social controls are imposed

conformity perspective

the theoretical position that humans are born good and generally try to do the right thing

classical theory

theory of human behavior that emphasizes free will as a core concept

positivist theory

theory that prior experiences or influences determine present behavior

it's gone

what changed with the hierarchy rule of NIBRS?